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Killzone: Shadow Fall |OT| Nothing Stops This Rain

RedAssedApe

Banned
Just got to Chapter 8. Omg...this looks so amazing.

Its how I imagined a next-gen Gear of War to look. With the wreaked planet and all.
 
I think the game is visually fantastic. But does anyone else agree certain environments/levels fall victim to the jaggies moreso than others?

Is Guerilla using FXAA?
 

Timu

Member
I honestly think that bright/white room looks like shit in all the screenshots I've seen of it on GAF, but in-game it's pretty damn swell.

the screenshots in this thread do not do the game justice.
Don't every game look better on your screen?=p Hell they look fantastic on my 28 inch PC monitor. Also you won't get better than this because it sure beats what the PS4 itself has for capturing screens(as I don't use the PS4 share button).
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I think the game is visually fantastic. But does anyone else agree certain environments/levels fall victim to the jaggies moreso than others?

Is Guerilla using FXAA?

TSSAA in SP, FXAA in MP

High contrast edges give it some trouble but for the most part it's pretty good. Here's hoping that Sony's first party can improve and experiment with TSSAA over time.
 
When I dropped into this room and the music kicked in, it was one of those "whooooaaaa" moments…. like I actually said it out loud and everything (^____^)

The visuals in this CAN NOT get enough praise. They really are the best out there up to this point.

GG artist are one of the best SciFi designers in the industry
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I remember this very room. I never would have thought such an operationally nondescript room could look so impressive. My mate and I were both blown away. And it was just some random room.

That room is gorgeous. Everything looks so natural and just plain "right".
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
Huge post incoming

I've spent a lot of time playing both Shadow Fall and Mercenary lately and wanted to write up where I think the series should go from here and what direction it should take. This is mainly going to be about SF but I also want to mention thinks that Mercenary did well because I hope some of those things make it into the main series. I liked both games quite a bit but I am going to focus on things I think can be improved. All of this is stuff I would like to see in future entries of the series.

Controls and Gunplay:
This is where I want to focus because it's the KZ series greatest strength and the area where I'm split on some of the changes.

-SF is one of the best controlling FPS I've ever played. It's tight and responsive without losing the series trademark weight.
-Touchpad controls for the OWL were brilliant. Natural, easy to use, and highly responsive.
-No auto aim is surprisingly playable and refreshing. It really helps differentiate the game from other series and adds an added satisfaction and level of player skill.
-Enemies in SF had too little health. They died so quickly that the hit reactions the series is known for, while present, didn't get a chance to flourish. I'm used to the Helghast feeling like they have some heavy armor on and it didn't feel like that in SF.
-Bring back exploding heads and blood stains based on where you hit enemies. It added a layer of feedback and brutality that made the gunplay extra satisfying and made it easy to see where your shots are hitting. Bringing these back would also eliminate the need for a hitmarker, just let the in game effects and animations show what is happening (although a kill marker would be useful).
-ADS reticules need to be linked with the gun movement. They stay centered as a HUD overlay instead of moving with the motion of the gun, creating a disconnect between the player and the weapon and making it sometimes difficult to manage recoil since you don't have that feedback. It also makes it seem like the game has less recoil than it actually does. I've seen a lot of complaints about the game not having much recoil when it's really just a perception based off of this issue and not the reality.
-Did not like the LSR44 Spoor as a primary weapon that could not be switched out. KZ games are known for meaty, powerful, ballistic guns and a plasma weapon just seemed out of place. Not being able to drop it also limited combat options more than I would have liked.

Level Design and Abilities:
I think these two are deeply linked so I'm combining them.

-I loved Chapters 2-6 and 10. Some of my favorite FPS missions in a long time and they should be the templates to build off of for future games.
-Chapters 7, 8, and 9 fell into the trap of just throwing huge numbers of enemies at you at once and felt overly long and repetitive because of it. As much as I appreciated the game being a 12 hour FPS campaign in 2013, a bit of editing to these sections would have helped the pacing along and made the game feel tighter.
-This is the main area that I think some of the ideas in Mercenary would benefit the main series. Allow loadout options and alternate pathways to accommodate different playstyles and encourage replayability. A lot of missions seemed to force you into a playstyle that didn't gel with some players (I personally liked it) and allowing players to chose their abilities and weapons would help with that.
-Add a detailed map. Put it in with the objective info so it's not always on screen. It would help with keeping your bearings and finding the next objectives.

General Improvements:
-I'd like to see either a hard 60fps target or a locked 30fps across both modes. Keep it consistent. I liked the higher framerates but the fluctuation was distracting at times.
-Wider FoV/higher camera. These are complaints I've seen with the series for a while and SF was the first game I noticed them in. It's jarring since there are a couple scenes where Kellan is talking to someone and the camera raises then drops back down again. These are issues I've seen several people harping on throughout the series and I don't think they have a real impact on what makes the series great so alleviating it would make the game more approachable for those that have an issue with it without alienating the fanbase.
-Better cover mechanics and traversal. Mercenary did a great job of merging crouch with cover and allowing for sidling, and climbing. I would love for this to become expanded upon.
-Zipline felt very underused. Not effective in as many situations as it could have been.
-More brutal melee animations, maybe even add touchpad motions like in Mercenary.

Multiplayer is excellent.
Others can articulate MP related stuff better than I can but I love that this game is an infantry focused, skill based, objective based game. I just wanted to highlight that I love the MP and I'm not much of a MP gamer at all. Battlefield is usually the only MP game I play extensively but since I've gotten into this MP I haven't touched BF4.

Story/Setting Possibility for the Next Game
Echo would be an amazing choice for the player character in the next game. She's becoming a fan favorite, is genuinely likeable, and having a female lead would help differentiate KZ. I'd love to see a game where she is uniting half breeds and the younger people of Vekta against the VSA and Helghast. A situation where Saric (a criminally underused character) usurps the throne and tries to take her out while being pursued by the VSA for Sinclair's assassination would be awesome. She could expose the terrible things both sides do and lead to a united Vekta.

Bringing the Earth factions in would be cool too. It could cause a large scale war and would introduce lots of new weapons.

Conclusion:
I really liked this game and I can't wait to see what comes next from the series. My advice to GG is to listen to what the fans are saying about what to improve, not just trying to appease the people that didn't like the game. KZ3 did that and wound up pleasing no one. I don't want another KZ3. GG should take their time on the next game and make sure it's polished as hell. They've earned that after churning out a pretty impressive launch title.


PS
The instaboot and 'Play this Section' options for collectables are fucking genius.
 

dEvAnGeL

Member
cant get myself to finish this game, the fluctuation on the framerate makes me dizzy as fuck, i wish GG would patch this and lock the game at 30, at least for SP since i dont play MP, playing assassins creed 4 locked at 30 feels smooth and as soon as i jump on killzone it just looks terrible
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I think the objective markers got made bigger in the most recent patch. They're no longer a standard target shape but a larger, flashing circle. They definitely weren't like this before.
 
cant get myself to finish this game, the fluctuation on the framerate makes me dizzy as fuck, i wish GG would patch this and lock the game at 30, at least for SP since i dont play MP, playing assassins creed 4 locked at 30 feels smooth and as soon as i jump on killzone it just looks terrible

I agree and would love for them to just lock the framerate to 30. I honestly think it's also why Remote Play feels like shit.

I think the objective markers got made bigger in the most recent patch. They're no longer a standard target shape but a larger, flashing circle. They definitely weren't like this before.

It was one of the things they patched
 

TyrantII

Member
I forgot to add this one as well, lol, loving the scale in this game:
i5RJoRZgSVfRg.png

Here's a few:

1465862_471477136294390_1766943633_o.jpg


1399697_470715856370518_1838076469_o.jpg
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
That one flyby between chapters 9-10 is realtime and not cgi right?

Just beat the game. First kz game for me. Felt like the game lost a little steam at the end but I'd give it a solid 7.

Will be interesting to see how cod ghosts and bf4 compare once I get around to those sp campaigns.

Haven't delved into the MP much yet. Will probably wait for my friends to get their copies.
 

CoG

Member
Nice fucking demo in the PSN store. Downloaded it for to say, "Want to play? Head over to the PSN store to buy me!" Granted multi-player free next weekend but WTF?
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
Finished it just now. I guess the most I can say about it is that I didn't hate it. Something must be getting lost in translation, because I found the script to be really heavy-handed and more than a little silly. Main character had a 'forcefully dull' tone that reminded me of the main characters from Tron Legacy and Pacific Rim.

Game looked great but had annoying LOD pop in. It's not something I that normally bugs me but it happened in every level, and sometimes at really close distances (I think the Helghan ghetto level had boxes disappearing from a few meters away). Volumetric lighting was fantastic and I sometimes found myself moving left to right on catwalks just to catch the rays.

Combat was good, but not being able to drop your primary rifle is an... interesting design choice. The weapon never clicked for me so really hate being stuck with it. And because of that, I never really got to find a 'go to' weapon or even remember what any of the other rifles do (mostly because I'd find myself saying "well, I'm stick with a rifle so I'll wait for something different").

Overall, I preferred Mercenary, which offered a lot more variety (except for the final mission - the final mission in SF did a lot more than Merc's boss fight).
 

garyBig

Member
Finished it today. Gotta say, some of it was really fun, but then there was soo much bullshit again and again and again. Chapter 2 had caught me totally off guard with its perfect mix of visuals, sound design and honestly satisfying gameplay. But after that chapter, it basically never found this height for me again.
Well, there was one exception. Chapter 8 was by far my favorite part of the game. It was the only chapter that had me really stunned graphically, and on top of that I had a godly blast playing through it. SO. MUCH. FUN. Yeah, and then the rest of the game happened...

Overall, it was as mediocre as everyone said it was and the only further thing I'm gonna do with it is trade it in, grab the cash and get me some AC4 - probably the best game one can play right now on next-gen consoles.

But Mercenaries on Vita is still effing brilliant (got it yesterday #12dealsofchristmas). Who'd have thought?
 

TyrantII

Member
I do find it funny that so many people are finding so many of the different areas their favorite parts. One might hate one area, then love the next; and the next guy feels the opposite. I've seen people hating the Forest level or loving it. Hating New Helghan, or loving it for the different combat and level design. Hating the spaceship parts, or liking them to what a next Gen Deadspace should be.

They either did something right, or wrong there.
 

garyBig

Member
I do find it funny that so many people are finding so many of the different areas their favorite parts. One might hate one area, then love the next; and the next guy feels the opposite. I've seen people hating the Forest level or loving it. Hating New Helghan, or loving it for the different combat and level design. Hating the spaceship parts, or liking them to what a next Gen Deadspace should be.

They either did something right, or wrong there.

lol, so true!

seems like mainstream appeal is more difficult a thing to define than one might have guessed.
poor GG, hitting so perfectly straight that fine line of mediocrity where everyone hates the game but likes some parts of it enough to not really hate the game so that in the end it just feels uneven and forgettable to everyone. takes a special kind of talent tho
 
Uhhh

I'm on chapter 5 and stuck

I'm on objective F and just moved along some big yellow crane type things, I think I see where I need to be but no way to get there =/


Ugh, rappel wasn't showing up when I aimed it at first
 

IvorB

Member
I think the objective markers got made bigger in the most recent patch. They're no longer a standard target shape but a larger, flashing circle. They definitely weren't like this before.

It was one of the things they patched

I really can't believe GG are wasting their time updating the game for people that complain they can't see the quest marker. That is, without a doubt, the dumbest criticism I have heard of any game.
 
I really can't believe GG are wasting their time updating the game for people that complain they can't see the quest marker. That is, without a doubt, the dumbest criticism I have heard of any game.
Maybe some people smaller tv sets. Anyway, it's better to see now. I didn't have a problem with it but i guess it's a small effort on their side to make more people happy.
 

shantyman

WHO DEY!?
It didn't, it put you in a postion where bad non tactical options leads you to failure, obviously there exsisted a option to win so not bad design at all, it actually really fucking good design, that's depth, you dont see that in to many shooters.

I disagree. You should not be put in a place where you absolutely have to reload an earlier checkpoint IMHO.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I really can't believe GG are wasting their time updating the game for people that complain they can't see the quest marker. That is, without a doubt, the dumbest criticism I have heard of any game.

It's a pretty subtle change. If you didn't have a problem with them before, you won't now. It's not like they put them on screen all the time and over obtrusive. They probably want to get something like that out there before Christmas floodgates of new players open.
Am the only one who thought
Saric
was CRIMINALLY underused?

I used those exact words in my giant post above.
 

thelastword

Banned
lol, so true!

seems like mainstream appeal is more difficult a thing to define than one might have guessed.
poor GG, hitting so perfectly straight that fine line of mediocrity where everyone hates the game but likes some parts of it enough to not really hate the game so that in the end it just feels uneven and forgettable to everyone. takes a special kind of talent tho
What are you talking about, everyone does not hate the game, many people liked the game including me. The problem I see with fans is that everybody wants a game to tailor to their taste on every level and in every conceivable way, this is impossible and never a good thing. One person's taste is totally different to another and you will always get different views regardless.

I'll tell you, I heard so many persons talking about chapter 8 and it's difficulty spike, I played through the chapter and loved it, not once did I feel bogged down or stuck, and yet I was surprised, because after playing through it, I thought wasn't it this chapter persons were complaining on earlier in the thread...Even here, some persons hate chapter 9, due to too many enemy waves, I absolutely loved this chapter.

There is no game where you will love everything about it or where nothing can be improved on, doesn't mean you hate the game if you highlight it. Taste and style of play is also subjective, personally I hate platforming levels, I hated it in Ninja Gaiden, I was not a fan of it in that one part in shadowfall, but it was short so it didn't matter to me. I say give me waves of your hardest enemies, I'll take them out, having platforms move around before me where I have to time my jumps, just messes with my head for some reason. Do I hate ninja gaiden or shadowfall for these reasons, hell no, it's something I can get used to or get better at.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
I agree and would love for them to just lock the framerate to 30. I honestly think it's also why Remote Play feels like shit.
I wish they'd do it for people who feel this way, but I think they made the 100% right call with leaving it unlocked. The control input responsiveness would always suffer a bit if they capped the framerate, and it just feels smoother this way, even if not as consistent.
 
I remember this very room. I never would have thought such an operationally nondescript room could look so impressive. My mate and I were both blown away. And it was just some random room.

I have like 15 shots of this room lol. This random room prob. impressed me more than anything else in the game; I've been talking about it ever since I first encountered it. It was that "whoaa this is next gen" moment for me. It's so damn visually impressive on the TV; the contrast, the gold material, the depth perception; everything just combines to be a visual treat. Captures just do not do it justice;

iJhMwEzGeWuuv.jpg


ibklCKt2RxTOO5.jpg
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
I honestly think that bright/white room looks like shit in all the screenshots I've seen of it on GAF, but in-game it's pretty damn swell.
I remember that room too, but only because I thought it looked meh in the game as well. I'm honestly surprised that so many people found it to be impressive. To me, almost every other location in the game was more impressive :p
 
Guys this is my first console FPS game... and dear LORD I'm terrible. I've played for a few hours and I can't aim worth a damn :( What can I do? How do you aim precisely? I know it takes practice but are there any tips here and here you can give me?

Thank you for your time!
 

Grinchy

Banned
Guys this is my first console FPS game... and dear LORD I'm terrible. I've played for a few hours and I can't aim worth a damn :( What can I do? How do you aim precisely? I know it takes practice but are there any tips here and here you can give me?

Thank you for your time!

This might be a bad game to try as a first console FPS. It doesn't use aim assist, so it takes some getting used to in comparison to a game like Battlefield or CoD (or any other FPS ever put on a console).
 
What can I do. I already had BF4 and Ghosts on PC.

Put your OWL in shield mode to give yourself extra cover and shoot the enemy from behind it, or use stun mode to disable small groups of enemies. Make liberal use of adrenaline packs to slow time so you can adjust your aim. Did you try adjusting your stick sensitivity? 80% for both X and Y axes is perfect for me.
 

Quote

Member
The soundtrack is so good, but too low. Luckily I've been wearing my Pulse Elites and picked up on it. Now I have to track down the OST if there is one.
 
I started playing this online recently and I have been having massive problems with disconnection issues. Does this happen to anyone else?
 

FroJay

Banned
A big huge, gigantic Fuck you to all support players that run over my dying body and not revive me.

That is all.

Just remember, we can only revive people so quickly, and if you're still in the line of fire it would be stupid to revive you right away so you can get jacked immediately.
 
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